Fieldin' ma-CHINE.
With no visit from the Tooth Fairy to delay the day's start, and only the minor issue of my inability to plug iPhoto files into my SBCGlobal emails gumming thing up, we got to the fields at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, early enough to see Ron Washington and Art Howe working exclusively with Kevin Mench around the first base bag on Field 7, which is basically nothing more than an infield with a fence fringing it.
We walked by the Mench Crash Course and caught up with a handful of players just before their morning stretch, with Erica showing off her missing tooth and Max energetically exchanging high fives.
That is, except when Max's favorite player tried to strike up a conversation with him, and he went into a shell that almost never surfaces when he's cloaked in baseball pants, a Rangers cap, and his trusty Wilson A2291. It was pretty cool, though, when he posted up and threw a ball to his hero, who then flipped it to Ginger, who tossed it back to Max to complete a crisp 6-4-3.
Moments later, as I was tossing grounders to Max on the grass, Wash emerged from Field 7 and headed toward a spot nearby, where the few beat writers and columnists in town were waiting for his morning briefing. T.R. Sullivan addressed the manager first, 10 feet before he'd arrived: "Wash, right there is the only player in camp you haven't hit ground balls to."
Wash drops his glove but keeps the baseball that was tucked inside. Lifts his fungo. Without so much as a word or a gesture toward Max, he slaps a solid two-hopper from about 20 feet away, and a thousand thoughts rushed through my head (one of which was not to grab the camera or ask Ginger to, though there was no time for that anyway): How badly would Max be scarred if he booted the ball with that sort of rapt audience? Would he earn a "Pickin' ma-CHINE!" shout-out? Would he earn a split lip?
Knees bent, both hands properly outstretched, feet at an appropriate width, Max gathered the Wash bouncer perfectly.
"There. I've hit grounders to everybody now."
Funny thing is, Erica is more proud of losing a tooth than Max was making the play on a fungo off the bat of the Rangers manager and one of the game's premier infield instructors. But the moment wasn't lost on me.
One run on two hits and no walks over five innings for Luis Mendoza yesterday pretty much solidified a rotation spot for the 24-year-old. He not only became the first Rangers starter to go five innings this spring, but he did it in just 61 pitches, which included an array of dirty changeups that held left-handed hitters to a 1 for 11 day.
Kason Gabbard makes a start in a minor league game this afternoon, as the big club is off. His rotation spot is reportedly not in any jeopardy despite poor numbers this spring, but the Rangers would obviously like to see the lefthander locate his fastball more effectively than he has so far.
Milton Bradley will make his official spring training debut Friday night, serving as the designated hitter, which he'll also do so Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, if all goes well. Texas had planned to have him travel to Tucson for tomorrow's game against Arizona, but the Diamondbacks have told the Rangers that they are opting to having pitchers hit in that game, as is their right as the home team.
Every few days a Chicago newspaper revisits the idea that the Cubs continue to covet Marlon Byrd. I understand the positive clubhouse factor that Byrd offers, but with the way David Murphy is backing up his breakthrough summer with a massive spring, as long as Texas holds firm on its insistence that it would take more than Matt Murton to get him, it wouldn't surprise me to see Byrd moved. It would take a bit of a leap of faith on the ability of both Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley to avoid the disabled list all year, but Murton would address the depth situation (he's not a center fielder but Murphy certainly can be), and if Chicago added a pitcher like Sean Gallagher or Donald Veal or Jose Ceda to its offer – a longshot but it's the Rangers who have the leverage here – Texas can capitalize on a great non-roster signing (and another Rudy Jaramillo success story) from a year ago.
Typical day for Engel Beltre yesterday. Leads off the game with a no-doubt home run on the first pitch he saw, drops a drag bunt late in the game that the Royals third baseman had to eat.
Watch out when Wilfredo Boscan and Kennil Gomez start to fill out.
I would have had a big smile on my face, too, if I were Scott Servais having a conversation with Neftali Feliz, Wilmer Font, and Martin Perez on the back fields yesterday.
It's a scary thing whenever a prospect gets hurt, but in righthander Michael Main's case, the stress fracture in his rib cage is easier to cope with considering (1) it's not an arm injury, (2) he should be back on the mound two months into the season, and (3) it's likely that the first-rounder was going to be held back in extended at the outset of the season to keep his workload down anyway, much as lefthander Kasey Kiker was last year, his first season in the system.
The St. Paul Saints of the independent American Association released infielder Matt Brunson.
Day off today for the big club, a welcome break for lots of people, including the skipper, who certainly earned a day to regenerate after managing to slap a ground ball to the last kid in camp he hadn't done so to yesterday.
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